From: Akinori MUSHA <knu@...>
Date: 2000-10-10T14:17:24+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:5364] Allowing *ary's in the middle of a camma separated list

Hi,

I was writing some script and wanted to do the following thing, but it
didn't work as Ruby's current grammar doesn't allow *ary in the middle
of a camma separated list:

  options = ['-b', '-d', '-u']
  system 'rcsdiff', *options, "-r#{revold}", "-r#{revnew}", "#{root}/#{file},v"

I can cope with this situation by .flatten'ing the whole list however,
I don't feel like it because I certainly know which elements need to
be flattened. (ARGV in this case, of course)

  system *(['rcsdiff', options"-r#{revold}", "-r#{revnew}", "#{root}/#{file},v"].flatten)

(Yes, I know I can omit *(..) enclosing as system() also takes an
array, but I'm talking in general here.)


Now, can Ruby's grammar be changed to accept *ary's in the middle of a
camma separated list where it's not a part of L-value?


P.S.
I also think it's nice to accept it even in an L-value like this:

  rev = "1.1.2.2"
  *first, last = rev.split '.'

but I wouldn't insist that, as it must increase the complexity much.

-- 
                           /
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Akinori -Aki- MUSHA aka / (_ /  ( (__(  @ idaemons.org / FreeBSD.org

"We're only at home when we're on the run, on the wing, on the fly"